Looks to be a nice bike. I'm looking for something similar. I might have to go check this out. For some reason, I think I blew it off thinking the fork was probably sprung too stiff like on the Spec Hotrocks.

Reading the comments in a few other threads re the RST F1rst air (do a search) I think its supposed to be pretty good, the only other bike I belevie this fork comes on is the Scott Scale RC which is double the price of the Cannondale and not available in Australia.
Decent forks are few and far between with kids bikes and it seems very difficult to buy aftermarket. My sons forks on his 20" hotrock offer basically no suspension, adds more than couple of kg's in weight and after 18 months the bushes in them are so worn out there is more travel front to back than up and down...

Reading the comments in a few other threads re the RST F1rst air (do a search) I think its supposed to be pretty good, the only other bike I belevie this fork comes on is the Scott Scale RC which is double the price of the Cannondale and not available in Australia.
Decent forks are few and far between with kids bikes and it seems very difficult to buy aftermarket. My sons forks on his 20" hotrock offer basically no suspension, adds more than couple of kg's in weight and after 18 months the bushes in them are so worn out there is more travel front to back than up and down...

Home Page has or had 20 and 24 inch air forks for sale. Put one on my son's Marin.

At $550 it's right in between the Marin Disc and Specialized Disk 24 inch bikes.

If my son had liked the color I would have gone with one of the non disc specialized for $430 or $380 depending on if you 1x or 2x gearing and added the air shock and disc.

I'm gonna take a look at that Cannondale today at a LBS. I looked at a Giant XCT. Not too bad. The fork is actually softer than the one that comes on Hotrocks and Trek bikes.

TAlking with the shop guy, it looks like the Scott Scale JR comes with cassette hub instead of freewhee (like on the Giant) also it has bolted triple ring instead of rivetted (like on the Giant.) The Giant is 27# without pedals (as weighed on the shop scale.)

But at $420, is about $100 cheaper than the JR.

So do I pay $100 more to be able to use cassette cogs and the option to swap a bashguard for the big ring?

Looks like the Dale is right inline with the JR. So I might be tempted to go that route if the fork is really compliant.

I'm gonna take a look at that Cannondale today at a LBS. I looked at a Giant XCT. Not too bad. The fork is actually softer than the one that comes on Hotrocks and Trek bikes.

TAlking with the shop guy, it looks like the Scott Scale JR comes with cassette hub instead of freewhee (like on the Giant) also it has bolted triple ring instead of rivetted (like on the Giant.) The Giant is 27# without pedals (as weighed on the shop scale.)

But at $420, is about $100 cheaper than the JR.

So do I pay $100 more to be able to use cassette cogs and the option to swap a bashguard for the big ring?

Looks like the Dale is right inline with the JR. So I might be tempted to go that route if the fork is really compliant.

I personally think the bolted rings are important. When I put the shorten cranks on my son's bike with real chain rings, he noticed a huge improvement when trying to up shift the front.

All the cranks I've seen on kids bikes have shitty rings which makes the front upshift hard on smaller, weaker hands.

Also factoring in that my local LBS carries the 'Dale. While I have to go out of my way to order the Scott from another bike shop much farther away.

I've abandoned trying to get a featherweight bike. I think I am going to focus more on gears that make sense and shifters that would work smoothly. And probably most key is a fork that would actually work for my boy with his weight and the trails we will be riding on (roots, rocks, wet, singletrack)

I picked up the same cannondale for my 8 year old son. With the weather he hasn't ridden it too much but says he loves it so far. When I compressed the fork I noticed that the rebound was really slow coming back up. I did not see a rebound adjuster anywhere but didn't look too hard. Other than that the bike seems really nice.

I ordered this bike today. Hopefully it works out well for my son. Looks like they have a "medium" and "large" version of the bike. I believe the Top tube length is different on each.
Not sure if this is standard with other brands.

and post #100 has a close up image of a rebound adjuster on the RST F1RST Air 24 however I cant see one on the image on the cannondale website, maybe cannondale have gone for a cheaper version of the fork with no adjustable rebound, hope not...

The action on the fork is much nicer than anything else I've felt on kids bike. Actually has damping. It's air adjust for weight. The fork that comes on the 'dale doesn't have the rebound knob. Or maybe it fell off? But wasn't there.

It seems to have a friendlier standover than the Spec' XC bike. But the Spec looks to have a slightly nicer drivetrain.

Weighed both bikes with plastic platform pedals.

'Dale = 25.7#
XC = 27.01#

Now the XC did have an aluminum kickstand on it and wheel reflectors. But I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the 'Dale.

This might be a good bike right out of the box. And possibly have a good platform for some upgrades. I might try my hand at building wheels again with my buddy's old XT hubs from his Ibis Alibi. That and my spare X9 RD could help shave some weight.

But just wondering what kind of crankset options there are without breaking the bank.

The action on the fork is much nicer than anything else I've felt on kids bike. Actually has damping. It's air adjust for weight. The fork that comes on the 'dale doesn't have the rebound knob. Or maybe it fell off? But wasn't there.

It seems to have a friendlier standover than the Spec' XC bike. But the Spec looks to have a slightly nicer drivetrain.

Weighed both bikes with plastic platform pedals.

'Dale = 25.7#
XC = 27.01#

Now the XC did have an aluminum kickstand on it and wheel reflectors. But I was pleasantly surprised at the weight of the 'Dale.

This might be a good bike right out of the box. And possibly have a good platform for some upgrades. I might try my hand at building wheels again with my buddy's old XT hubs from his Ibis Alibi. That and my spare X9 RD could help shave some weight.

But just wondering what kind of crankset options there are without breaking the bank.

Yeah, the fork on the Race looked pretty basic with only lock-out adjustment. Still, the action on the fork felt pretty good.

I saw some thread about setting up the fork. Someone was recommending 25% sag. I don't know if I agree with that. I tried that on my own Sektor Fork on a hardtail. But maybe that's my own riding style. The larger sag makes the fork mushy when I'm out of the saddle which is about 50% of the time. Also, I prefer to bounce off of roots and rocks a little more to help me clear a group of obstacles rather than soaking each one individually.

Now I will say that it allows the front wheel to track better on bumpy surfaces especially in a turn. And maybe for an inexperienced rider that is better. So we'll see. At least it is a setting that you can play around with.

So I ended up getting the Cannondale for my son's birthday present. I've decided to keep it stock as long as possible. Maybe he'll grow into the 26" XS sooner than later. We'll see.

So first ride out Saturday. Very interesting. I took him out to Duthie Hill Park near my house. It's a man-made bike park that has XC to DH trails. Lots of practice areas for all range of skill levels.

So couple of notes.

I have to check the air pressure in the forks. On the trail, it didn't move for him. So it may be set with too much preload. He was pretty much riding a rigid fork. Mind you, my son is small at 10y/o. 53" and 62#.

Lots of pedal strikes. I don't know if I need to get shorter crankset or flatter pedals or what. Obviously he's gotta learn how to time his pedal strokes eventually. But there is not much ground clearance with his pedal in the down position. This makes cresting a rocky bump or slight leans as he climbs very challenging with the number of pedal strikes.

The pedal strikes bother him more than anything. But after the ride, he asked me when the next time we were going to ride again. Hopefully sooner than later.